Partners in Arts Participation
ACHF Arts Access
Partnerships are developed between social service organizations and arts organizations to better serve underserved communities. More Minnesotans are able to participate in the arts. We achieved our goal in serving thirty-six new youth, and we had seventy-four total participants, including all youth, mentors and parents. We used two methods to eliminate barriers. First, we made the workshops open to all youths and their mentors and/or parents, which, by including adults in the activities, eliminated the barrier to transportation. Secondly, in support of that effort, we promoted the workshops to parents and mentors rather than to youths.
The primary outcome of this project was the provision of three workshops for at-risk youth, culminating in live performances that addressed and eliminated multiple barriers to participation in arts for youth in Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities’ programs. Our organization has served youth for over eighty years. From experience, we know that lack of transportation, lack of resources and lack of a responsible adult to “drive” the event provide the main barriers to arts participation. Youth are usually open to new experiences, but, without an adult to provide encouragement and transportation, they simply cannot manage to participate in those experiences. By inviting parents and mentors to participate, we addressed the transportation barrier, and, by making the event free, we addressed the issue of lack of resources. Due to the structure of our program, we can usually count on an adult mentor to provide transportation to as well as support, encouragement, and organization necessary for participation in arts events. Unfortunately, however, such measures only temporarily eliminate barriers to youth participation, as they cease to be relevant when youth leave our program. 2: We increased the probability that workshop participants will involve themselves in future theater productions. We enjoyed collaborating with the staff at Harmony Theater, as they worked very well with both youth and Big Brothers Big Sisters staff. Harmony reported that our partnership offered them an opportunity to serve a population outside of their traditional white, middle-class demographic, which felt meaningful to them. Recently, Harmony proposed a new joint project between our organizations. We had thirty-six youth and seventy-four total participants in our workshops, which met our participation goal. We leveraged the trust in our relationships with parents and mentors of youth in our programs to promote and encourage participation. We also made participation in the workshops available to parents in addition to youth and their mentors. While not characteristic of Big Brothers Big Sisters activities in general, this modification generated impressive results, as we found parents to be some of the most involved and consistent participants.